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2820n WiFi issues

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13 Aug 2009 16:52 #57213 by jonhd
2820n WiFi issues was created by jonhd
First, just to acknowldege, there are plenty (of WiFi issues with the 2820n) (':evil:')

I'm curious to know whether any others have experienced the sort of problems I'm seeing...
Variety of WiFi devices (2x Logitech Squeezeboxes - one 802.11B/WEP-only, so I've ethernet-connected it via a Belkin 802.11G/WPA "AP extender"; 4 laptops with various WiFi chipsets - mostly 802.11G; a FetchTV 8000 Freeview box; a Vigor N61 802.11n USB WiFi adaptor to try on any of the laptops when I've got a problem; etc....)
I'm using WPA/TKIP, have tried various Channels (but there's not too much traffic around where I live), set for 802.11b/g/n Mixed Mode, and MAC address access control. 3.3.2.1 firmware. A couple of devices are DHCP, but most are fixed IP. When I get the problem I'm about to describe, it hits all devices equally!

One problem occurs, as far as I can tell, when the vacuum cleaner is used, in proximity to the 2820n (which is situated on a window ledge - not on the floor!). I'd guess the cleaner never gets closer than approx. 2m. (to the 2820n). Afterwards, all WiFi connectivity is 'down'. There are no problems apparent when I look at the router's various web pages - everything appears to be healthy (ADSL still up & working) - all of this ascertained, of course, via a PC that is ethernet connected.
So, I try a soft reboot. No good (no WiFi connectivity - but, the WiFi RF signal is present, with a decodable SSID, etc.). Try again. No good.
Try a hard reboot (power cycle). No good. Try again. No good.
Try all sorts of things - enable/disable WiFi from the web pages; from the front-panel switch. Re-enter the WPA/TKIP passphrase. Change the RF channel. Even revert to 3.2 series firmware... All no good. No WiFi connectivity from any device in the house. (I've noticed that *sometimes* it takes up to 5 minutes [e.g. after a reboot] for the WiFi RF signal to re-appear.)
The three times this has happened, I've tried all of these things. And in all three cases, WiFi connectivity spontaneously sprang back to life after a looooong time - approx. 45 mins. today - for no apparent reason (i.e. I wasn't doing anything, other than hassling my kid to get ready to go out to PC World so I could buy a Belkin WAP!).

All very disappointing, and rather negates the point (reliability - at least my old 2800 was) in shelling-out for a Vigor product... I can accept that a vacuum cleaner motor might cause WiFi interruption, but why should the recovery process (whatever that actually is!) be so tortuous?

Problem 2: I've been using the rather nifty inSSIDer WiFi monitor, to look for WiFi RF discontinuties, and haven't spotted any - whatever the WiFi 'dropout' problem is, that others have described, I think it's above the PHY layer. That said, the 2820n's RF RSSI pattern is the most variable (+\- 15dB) I've ever come across - it's always, by far, the dominant signal that I'm looking at (compared to WAPs in adjacent houses), and nowhere near to the noise floor... See here .

Anyways, the point being that whatever the cause of the discontinuities is, it makes VPN (Cisco VPN client) absolutely unusable. The VPN client never stays up for more than a minute or two. Disappointing!

Any comments / commiserations, etc.? (Ideally from a Draytek techie...)

Cheers, Jon

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